Ahmadinejad

Israel’s 2014 military budget includes at least 10 billion shekels devoted to preparations for war with Iran, Haaretz newspaper reports. Top Jerusalem officials recently said that Israel may strike Tehran’s nuclear sites even without US help.

Iran’s top air defense commander has announced that the country will launch its Bavar-373 (‘Belief-373’) missile defense system, Iran’s version of Russia’s S-300 long-range system, in the next two years.

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the inauguration of President Hassan Rouhani hailed a potentially transformative transition of power in the Islamic Republic, which hopes to mend rifts both at home and on the international stage.

Nuclear arms – as “the most inhumane weapon” – cannot be ever deployed and therefore they are useless for Iran, said outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an exclusive interview with RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze.

The Iranian election brought an unexpected victory for reformer Hassan Rouhani, marking not only the end of Ahmadinejad’s rule, but a watershed in Iranian domestic politics as well as in Tehran’s global standing and its troubled relations with the West.

Now that moderate Iranian cleric Hassan Rouhani is set to assume the presidency, the West will have to get to the negotiating table to talk to Tehran in a serious fashion and resolve the problem of sanctions, Iranian journalist Hamid Reza Emadi told RT.